46 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



came to my mind. I was satisfied as to the 'singing 

 mouse' being a reality. 



"The next appearance of our little singer was a 

 night or so after the sink episode, when in the pantry, 

 I and another saw it under a shelf, and it did not 

 show much fear at our presence. It is not unlike 

 other gray mice, only in the song it sings. This even- 

 ing it was heard in the pantry. ' ' 



Many other instances might be quoted, some 

 from writings more than a century old. Dr. 

 Elliott Coues wrote an extensive article about 

 these singing mice several years ago in The 

 American Naturalist. His conclusion was that 

 the sound was due to an asthmatic affection of 

 the throat and vocal organs. An interesting 

 narrative of various exhibitions of this faculty 

 is also included in Dr. Merriam's admirable 

 book on the mammals of the Adirondacks 

 (Trans. Linnaean Soc. of N. Y., Vol. II.) ; and 

 in Vol. V. of The American Naturalist, the late 

 Eev. Samuel Lockwood gave a most pleasing 

 history of a white-footed (wild) mouse which 

 was kept in a cage, and was a persistent and 

 prolonged singer, having two or more regular 

 tunes, the music of which he gives. The sim- 

 ilar performance of a captive house-mouse is 



